Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is an upcoming golf simulation game with Rory McIlroy serving as the games sponsored icon. It’s the next entry into the PGA Tour series.

The game is currently being developed by the Florida-based EA subsidiary, EA Tiburon who are perhaps best known for their work on Madden NFL, NBA Live and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Running on the powerful Frostbite 3 engine, which was developed by EA DICE, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is being published by EA Sports.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is set to launch on July 14th 2015. It is being developed for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Development

This newest instalment in the PGA Tour series was first announced during the EA Press Conference at E3 2014. Not only will it serve as the next entry into the popular PGA Tour series, it will also be the next game in the series outside of the Tiger Woods branded titles.

EA later put the PGA Tour series on hiatus after the release of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14. With Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 acting as the final entry into the branded series, it was announced that a new golfer would be taking up the title of the next game.

Since then, EA have chose the popular and successful Northern Irishman, Rory McIlroy who was, and continues to enjoy, a streak of victories across a number of competitive fronts in the professional golfing scene.

Speaking about his appearance on the cover of the game, Rory said, “I grew up idolizing the best golfers in the world, and now I’m one of them. One of the ways I idolized them was in video games. Playing video games is one of the ways I try to relax in my downtime, and one of my favorite video games was golf. That’s what makes today’s announcement so exciting to me. I am on the cover of EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR and it’s named after me. That is crazy! I am more excited than I can possibly put into words.”

He was first confirmed to be appearing on the game’s cover on March 16th 2015 after the first delay. Originally, the title was set to drop in June as the first entry in the PGA Tour series since 2013, but it was pushed back to July 14th.

This is the first game in the PGA Tour series of games that will be stepping away from the Ignite Engine which was put to use in most EA Sports titles. Rather Rory McIlroy PGA Tour uses DICE’s Frostbite 3 Engine. The reason for using Frostbite is, according to executive producer Brent Nielsen, that the engine was used to create “complex, lifelike environments” and to bring “some of the world’s most beautiful courses” to life in the game world.

Story

Given the nature of Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, there’s no story or campaign narrative in a traditional sense. Rather the game will lead the player through a series of competitions that will increase in difficulty and visit a variety of famous golfing locales.

Gameplay

EA went to length to ensure the gameplay in Rory McIlroy PGA Tour can be approached by both experienced gamers and those that are more familiar with arcade-like, easier games. They’ve done this by allowing players to choose from one of the three predetermined play styles. They are the Arcade, Classic and Tour gameplay modes.

The Arcade setting is the analog swinging mechanic that was present in previous iterations of the PGA Tour franchise. Just like before, the strength of the swing is determined by how far back the player pulls the analogue stick whereas accuracy is determined by keeping your shot straight and level when pushing forward.

Classic setting is a throwback to the older, simpler golfing games where the player is prompted to press a button at the right time, then time the press again to increase accuracy.

The Tour setting is a professional player’s setting for the more hardcore gamers in the golfing space according to EA. They’ve said, “The length of your back swing and the speed of the follow-through set the power, while accuracy is determined by how straight a line you make with the analogue stick.”

In the Tour setting, players don’t have the benefit of preset spins, zooming or an aim arc – this is all input by the player. The other two gameplay settings mentioned above however do benefit from these assists.

Gameplay options also allow space for customisation such as a custom swing style that could be amalgamation of the three previously mentioned styles.

Courses

At the time of writing, EA haven’t revealed the list of courses that will be available in the game. We do however know that the game will feature a course that is based on the Paracel Storm map from DICE’s Battlefield series. Footage of TPC at Sawgrass and Wolf Creek was also seen.

More courses are likely to be added post launch by way of DLC.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.